


the cassette tape we shared

by tmwshj



Category: Cravity (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1990s, Childhood Friends, Drabble, First Love, Fluff, Illnesses, M/M, gongtang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27714062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmwshj/pseuds/tmwshj
Summary: taeyoung and seongmin made a promise over a cassette tape.
Relationships: Ahn Seongmin/Kim Taeyoung
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	the cassette tape we shared

**Author's Note:**

> this is kinda funny considering both taeyoung and seongmin are not born in the 1990s at all but i just watched "flavours of youth" and this scene really hit me hard okay :" anyways, i hope you enjoy this short drabble that i wrote in like,, an hour because i was feeling really inspired 🤩 
> 
> inspired by the animated film "flavours of youth". enjoy!

taeyoung and seongmin always walked to school together.

they talked about anything and everything under the sun, strolling through their small but busy neighbourhood, with street hawkers filling up the pathways and frantic business-people trying the catch the seven o’ clock bus to the city. they liked to talk about the latest music which they recently rented on the cassette tapes, chatting animatedly as they made their way to school.

taeyoung was in the basketball team and could be seen frequenting the court during lunch break. seongmin, on the other hand, preferred to keep to his books, deciding to stay in the library during lunch to read about tales from faraway lands. he always chose the window facing the basketball court – he liked to think that it was because it was the spot that had the most sunlight, but really, he just wanted to take a peek at his next-door neighbour and childhood friend play a game of basketball.

his heart thrummed against his chest whenever he saw that taeyoung had managed to make a basket, and taeyoung, knowing that a particular four-eyed boy was always watching him from the same library window, made sure to wave a celebratory fist at him. seongmin smiled from the window, waving back. taeyoung probably couldn’t see it, but seongmin always made sure to mouth “fighting!” whenever he made a basket.

every day, without fail, they leave class together, walking side by side as they made their way through the same busy-as-ever neighbourhood, trying their best to avoid the afternoon lunch-goers. they spend the rest of their day together, seongmin making sure to squeeze in some time to make taeyoung study, while taeyoung attempted to make an escape when seongmin wasn’t looking. (doesn’t work half the time though.)

they listen to the cassette tapes right before dinner was served and they had to return to their respective households. taeyoung preferred more cheery music, while seongmin preferred ballads. it didn’t matter though, because they were together, in front of the same dingy cassette player, looking down towards the same busy street.

seongmin fell sick often.

there were days when taeyoung found himself waiting outside seongmin’s apartment for a minute too long, getting anxious as he awaited that same smile that greeted him every morning. he would feel a little disappointed when seongmin’s mother appeared instead, informing him that seongmin wouldn’t be going to school that day. it felt weird not having the smaller boy next to him, but taeyoung made do with it, fiddling with the bulky audio recorder in his hands instead.

as lessons started that day, the seat in front of him would always be empty, a reminder to taeyoung that he had a task to do. he inserted a blank cassette into the recorder and pushed the bright red button at the top. as the teacher started the lesson, he leaves the recorder on his lap while he took notes for seongmin, occasionally whispering witty comments under his breath.

after the school day ended, he rushed through the afternoon lunch-going crowd to seongmin’s apartment. by then, seongmin would have already eaten his first meal of the day, looking much more energised and a little less frail. on days like these, taeyoung would simply hand over the cassette of that day’s lesson as well as some notes. frankly, the notes aren’t too informative, a mess of scrawls and scribbles over a piece of lined paper, but seongmin appreciates it anyways. the cassette tapes weren’t too informative as well, but they bring some life back into seongmin’s body nonetheless.

_“and action! hello seongmin, can you hear me? the first lesson of the day is literature, and i know how much you hate it, but i’ll try to make you enjoy it today!_

_right now, you need to flip to page 24-”_

_“mr kim! what are you doing? care to explain why you have a recorder with you?”_

_“ah! mr lee, i can explain…”_

seongmin chuckled at his best friend’s antics.

being sick sucked, but it was times like this when seongmin realises that when the world seemed pitch-black, there will always be a small glimmer of hope, and that small glimmer came in the form of kim taeyoung – his neighbour, his best friend,

his first love.

on some nights, taeyoung and seongmin would communicate over the radio on the cassette player.

it was a regular school night and seongmin had tapped on his bedroom wall thrice. taeyoung, hearing the familiar knocks, would enthusiastically pull out his cassette player from under the bed and set it on the table in his shared room (he always kicked out his sister first).

_“taeyoung, what do you want to be when you grow up?”_

_“i dunno, i haven’t thought about it yet. what about you, seongmin? what do you wanna be when you grow up?”_

_“hmm, i want to be healthy. i want to be healthy and make lots of money, so that when i grow up, i can take care of my parents like how they take care of me.”_

_“…”_

_“taeyoung?”_

_“i know what i want to be when i grow up now.”_

_“what is it?”_

_“i want to be a doctor, so i can make you healthy.”_

_“thank you, taeyoung-ah.”_

taeyoung studied hard from that day on, trying to make his dream a reality. he doesn’t sneak off from their study sessions now, even encouraging seongmin to study a little bit more.

seongmin started to fall ill more often, the empty seat in front of taeyoung in their classroom being a common occurrence throughout their final year in middle school. yet, without fail, taeyoung was always seen with an audio recorder.

seongmin wished he could hear more of taeyoung’s witty comments, but unfortunately, the cassette tapes seemed to be getting more and more repetitive and less and less taeyoung-like. empty static filled the silences when the teacher was writing on the chalkboard and the scratching of a pencil could occasionally be heard through the speaker.

seongmin pushed his notes away, dropping his pen limply on the table. he took out the cassette player and inserted a blank cassette…

seongmin didn’t show up on the day of the high school entrance exam results. as the school bell rang, taeyoung darted out of the school gates, squeezing through the busier-than-usual afternoon lunch-going crowd. he appeared in front of the ahn’s household, banging on the door.

“ahn seongmin! open up! it’s me!”

instead of the face of his best friend, what appeared instead was the face of the lovely ahjumma from next door. “you can stop knocking now. they left early this morning.”

taeyoung’s face paled, his results slip falling limply to the ground – straight As.

“w… where to?”

“city. their boy’s condition seemed to have worsened.” the ahjumma pulled out a cassette tape. “here, you must be taeyoung-ssi. the boy told me to give this to you.”

taeyoung laid awake on his bed that night, hugging the cassette player close to his chest as the cassette played in a loop, his tears dry on his cheeks.

_“hello taeyoung, this is seongmin, but you probably know that, right? well, if you’re listening to this tape, that means i must have gone by now._

_i’m sorry i couldn’t say a proper goodbye, you must have done well for the entrance exam right? congratulations! sorry that i couldn’t be there to congratulate you in person._

_well, there’s also one last thing i want to apologise for. i’ll finally be receiving treatment at a good hospital in the city now. consider this my way of achieving my dream. i know i should have told you earlier, but knowing you, you’ll probably want to come to the city with me! and i can’t let you do that, not when you’ve been accepted into the best school in our area._

_i’m sorry i couldn’t tell you earlier, taeyoung-ah, but i’ll make a promise._

_i promise to come find you again when i’ve achieved my dream. and you have to make this promise too, alright?_

_promise that you’ll come find me too, doctor kim.”_

the cassette recording ends. taeyoung let out a choked sob. “i promise.”

“good morning ms kwon.”

“good morning doctor kim. terrible weather as of late, no?”

“ah yes, indeed.” taeyoung greets the nurse curtly, rushing into his office.

the weather was cold and stormy, yet it never seemed to rain. he sets his cellphone down on his desk and switches on the computer, checking his schedule for the day. he’s glad – he has no patients, that meant that they were all healthy. he leans back into his chair, turning on some slow ballads to complement the stormy weather.

head of the physiology department in the city centre’s main hospital, kim taeyoung graduated top of his class a few years back, securing a spot immediately as resident in the hospital he now works at. it’s a fulfilling career, and taeyoung’s glad he decided to pursue it.

“doctor kim, there’s someone looking for you.”

“i don’t have any patients today, ms kwon.” taeyoung says, barely looking up from the computer screen.

“that’s right, you don’t.”

the familiar voice at the doorway makes taeyoung freeze. he doesn’t dare look up.

“seong…min?”

“i’m not a patient. well, no longer a patient, that is.”

taeyoung looks up to see that familiar smile that he’s been seeing since he was a child. he smiles back, walking over and engulfing seongmin in his arms. seongmin didn’t smell like hospital gowns or iv drips – he smelled like the rain that had just started to fall outside, he smelled like the faint scent of a white musk cologne from a fancy place downtown.

“i kept my promise. i achieved my dream.” seongmin looks up, locking eyes with taeyoung.

taeyoung feels his heart stir like he was a middle-schooler walking his crush to school. “and i kept mine too.”

“i see that, doctor kim.”

taeyoung and seongmin share a laugh, mirthful and full of life, something that should be stored in a cassette forever and ever.

**Author's Note:**

> im strangely proud of this work actually woah... kudos and comments would be appreciated and thank you so so much for reading! <3
> 
> twt - [shjIuvr](https://twitter.com/shjIuvr)


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